Box toe



Emma July 1,1925.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFIC E.

mam. r. (man, or nmvnns, massacnusn-r'crs, assrenon. ro nncxwrrn umrac'ruame comm, or sos'ron, mssacnusn'rrs, A conrom'rron or rummnox TOE.

Ida-Drawing.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, ALBERT L. Cnnrr, citizen of the United States, residing at Danvers, in the county of Essex and State of Massachusetts, have invented new and useful Improvements in Box Toes (Case B), of

it must be ground dry by some suitable which the following is a specification.

This invention has relation to box toes and to sheet material from which box-toe blanks may be produced and to the process of manufacturing'the same.

Ordinarily in the production of box-toe blanks, which when assembled with the other parts of the upper are softened by the application of heat so that they may be molded about the end of the last, it is customary first'to form a fibrous foundation of felted fibers, and then to saturate the sheet with a hydrocarbon stiffening agent while the latter is in. a molten condition.

One of the purposes of the present invention is to form a sheet in which the stiffening aglent is incorporated with the pulp so that t e sheet may be produced by an ordinary paper machine and without the necessity of subsequently saturating it. Thus in forming the sheet, I may follow a procedure somewhat similiar to that employed in the manufacture of aper, boxboard or roofing felt, utilizing on y the ordinary appliances which are found in a paper mill.

A box-toe'blank should have the stiffening agent incorporated therein, so that, when the box is molded, it will be stiff and resilient,

and yet, when the stiffening agent is in a soft or plastic condition, the box-toe blank must be capable of being stretched and folded about the end of the last without injury.

t g. In accordance with the present invention, I employa fibrous stock which comprises two different kinds of fibers: first, long fibers such as cattle hair,"flax, long rope stock and the like, and, second, relatively short fiber such as utilized in paper manufacture, for

exam le chemical wood pulp, rag pulp or the like. For example, the fibrous stock furnished to the beater may consist of equal parts of cattle hair and sulphate pulp, or, if desired, '1 may employ 5 parts by weight of hair, 5 arts by weight of chemical wood pulp an 5 parts by wei ht of'box-toe waste,

thatis, the waste ofsu sheets as are pro,-

v the disperse Application filed October 31,1922. Serial No. 588,815.

duced by my process herein described or are produced by saturating a cotton and wool felt with the usual stiffening compounds such as solid hydrocarbons of the character of asphaltum, gums or resins, montan wax, or the hke. If box-toe waste is employed,

grinding or disintegrating machine. For this purpose, I find that an Abbe rotary cutter will fgrind the waste to the necessary degree of neness. To prevent any of the ingredients from sticking to the rotary cut ters, a small amount of talc may be added from time to time to the contents of the inder.

A furnish such as herein referred to is placed in a beating engine with a suflicient quantity of water to ensure its circulation, and the roll of the heater is so adjusted that the knives will brush the' fibers without cutting them, and effect a thorough mixture of the'fibers so'as to secure a practical physical homogeneity in the resulting pulp.-

Accordlng to my invention, the stock should have incorporated therein the stifiening agent, which gives the box-toe its necessary resiliency and stiffness. For this so purpose, I may use rosin, and in the example now being given I add 50 parts by weight of rosin to 15 parts by {weight of the I fibrous stock. The resin should be in a state of relatively, fine, subdivision and should be thoroughly intermixed in the pulp. The rosin itself does not give sufiicient toughness to the box toe as it greatly increases the brittleness of the sheet. It is necessary, therefore, to temper the resin or other gum which may be utilized in lieu thereof, and it is desirable furthermore to fix the rosin upon the fibers in the sheet. For this purpose, I preferably employ a soap which is formed. from oil or oleic acid. The oil should not be added as such to the beater but preferably it is emulsified in an aqueous soap solution. In forming this emulsion, v15 parts by weight of common soap are dissolved in water, and then parts by weight of oleic acid, vegetable or animal oil are emulsified in the soa solution so as to form base t ereof. Sometimes one. may add to t e solution mineral oil such as parafiin oil. The oil emulsion is added. to 105 the beater contents and thoroug intermixed therewith, and I then add a precipitat ing agent which will precipitate a metallic soap on the fibers in the beater, carrying down with it the rosin which is in a free state. If the usual precipitant (alum) is added, an aluminum soap is thrown down down in the form of a calcium soap which is not sticky when wet. This is in addition to alum which is also added for the purpose of precipitating the original soap of the soap solution in which the oil was emulsified. The procedure is as follows :.After the rosin is thoroughly intermixed in the pulpy mass by the action ofthe beater, the aqueous soap oil emulsion is added and beaten into the pulpy mass. Then 20 parts by welght' of lime and 10 parts by weight of alum are introduced into the beater and thoroughly incorporated in the pulp. rosin, and the gums of the box-toe waste 1f thelatter be used as a part of the furnish, calcium soap and aluminum soap are thrown down and precipitated or caused to adhere as a conglomerate mass to the fibers, of the pulp. The pulpy mass is now formed intoa sheet by the usual cylinder paper machine, and, after the sheet has been built to the desired caliper on the make-up roll, it is slit and removed therefrom. The sheet is then dried, and when dry is open, free, porous and water-absorbent. In order that the box-toe blanks may be thoroughly waterproof, stiff and resilient, it is necessary that the stiffening agent in the sheet should be caused to flux and coalesce and to form a finish on the surface of the blank. This may be secured by the employment of hot calender rolls through which either the sheet or the box-toe blanks are passed. One method of procedure is to pass the sheet while still warm from the drier between calender rolls heated to a temperature of about 190 F. In this case, the box-toe blanks are then died out of the sheet, skived and then re-calendered so as to seal and compact the skived edges. According to the other procedure, the box-toe blanks may be cut from the sheet after it is dried, after which they are skived and are then passed through calender rolls properly shaped to receive them so that the stiffening agents will be fluxed and caused to coalesce and the surfaces as well as the skived edges finished by being compressed or compacted.

box toe, such as herein described, is characterized by the fact that it contains precipitated soap which tempers the rosin or other thermo-plastic stiffening agent which was incorporated in the sheet. The box-toe blanks thus produced may be rendered limp and flexible when subjected to a moderate As a result, the

heat so that they may be molded about and caused to conform to the end of the last during the usual pulling-over or lasting operations which are followed in shoe manufacture. Because of the character of the fibrous material, the fibers are properly felted on the paper machine, forming a web which is sufficiently free for the elimination of the water during the drying operation and also for the elimination of water through the forming cylinder in the formation of the sheet. The presence of the long fibers permits of the stretching and folding of the blank in the lasting or pulling-over operation when the stiffening agent is in a soften- .ed condition. If the sheet were formed only of shortfib'er' such asemployed'in the manufacture of paper, it would have no stretching qualities and would tear or pull apart during the lasting operation.

One of the advantages ofa sheet such as herein described is the fact that it may be colored practically to'any hue which is de-.

sired. By adding a white pigment, the box toes may be used with white shoes, or, if desired, other pigments (such as red iron oxide or the like) may be addedfor adapting the box toes for tan shoes; and, if desired, lamp black may be incorporated in the beater contents if it be desired to produce a black box toe.

What I claim is 1. A stiff resilient box toe adapted to be rendered soft and moldable by the application of heat, consisting of a layer of felted fibers containing a thermo-plastic compound and a metallic soap incorporated therein.

2. A stifi' resilient box toe adapted to be rendered soft and moldable by the application of heat, consisting of a layer of long and short fibers felted together and containing a theremo-plastic compound and calcium soap incorporated therein.

3. Astiff resilient box toe adapted to be ren dered soft and moldable by the application of heat, consisting of a layer of felted fibers containing a thermo-plastic compound, caltherein.

4. A stiff resilient box toe adapted to be rendered soft and moldable by the application of heat, consisting of a layer of felted fibers containing rosin and calcium soap incorporated therein. 5. A stiff resilient box toe adapted to be rendered soft and moldable by the application of heat, consisting of a layer of felted fibers containing a thermo-plastic compound and calcium soap incorporated therein. said thermo-plastic compound being coalesced throughout said layer.

6. A box toe consisting of alayer of felted fibers containing a thermo-plastic compound and calcium soap incorporated therein, said layer being compacted, stiff, resilient and tion of heat,-consisting of a layer of cattle hair and wood pulp felted together, and containing a thermo-plastic compound and calcium soapdistributed throughout the layer.

8. A stiff resilient box toe adapted. to no renderedsoft and moldable by the ap lication of heat, consisting of a layer of fi rous material including box-toe waste, and containing a thermo-plastic compound and calcium soap incorporated in such layer.-

9. In the manufacture of a box toe adapted to be softenedby the application of heat, pulping fiberswith water, incorporating a thermo-plastic compound and a saponifiable material in the mass, adding lime, sheeting the mass on a paper machine, fiuxing the thermo-plastic compound and forming such sheet into toe boxes.

10. In the manufacture of a box toe, adapted to be softened by the application of heat, pulping fibers with water,'incorp'orating a finely divided thermo-plastic compound-and a saponifiable material in the ulp, preoipitating soap by the addition of ime, s eeting the mass on a paper machine,

fluxing the, thermo-plastic compound, and forming such sheet into toe boxes.

11. In the manufacture of a box toe, adapted to be softened by the application of heat, pulping fibers with water, incorporating a finely divided thermo-plastic com:

pound and an aqueous saponaceous emulsion I of a saponifiable material, precipitatin the soap of said emulsion with alum an the saponifiable material with lime, forming the resultant pulp into a sheet on a paper machine, fluxing the thermo-plastic compound, and forming such sheet into toe boxes.

12. In the manufacture of a box toe, adapted to be. softened by the application of heat, pulpingwood pulp and cattle hair with water, lncorporating a finely divided thermo-plastic compound in the pulp together with a saponifiable material, precipitating said last-mentioned material with lime as calcium soap, sheeting the mass on a paper machine, fiuxing' the thermo-plastic gompound, and forming such sheet into too oxes.

signature.

ALBERT L. GLAPP. 

